Just to set things straight, Earl Seibert, the Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman that we’re featuring today, is not related to Babe Siebert, another Hall of Famer we featured last week. In fact, if you look close, the last names aren’t even spelled the same. Earl was no stranger to the Stanley Cup finals and won a championship with two teams, the New York Rangers and Chicago Blackhawks.
Earl Seibert – Playing Career
Prior to his 15 seasons in the National Hockey League, Seibert spent two years in the CAHL with the Springfield Indians, 1929-30 and 1930-31. In his second year in the predecessor to American Hockey League, Earl tied for eighth in the CAHL with 16 goals over 38 games.
Springfield placed first overall in the five team league over the 40 game schedule. The Indians reached the finals and were crowned champions with a three games to two victory over the Boston Cubs. Boston outscored Springfield 19-17 on the series. The victory came seven years before the Calder Cup was introduced.
Seibert played in the NHL from 1931-32 to 1945-46 with the Rangers, Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings. Over that time, he played in 653 regular season games, scoring 89 goals and assisting on 187 for 276 points. Over 65 Stanley Cup playoff games, Earl added another 19 points. From ten straight years from 1934-35 to 1943-44, Seibert was named an All-Star defenseman, four times First Team and six times Second Team.
In his rookie year, playing for the Rangers, New York reached the Stanley Cup finals but were swept in three by the Maple Leafs. The following year, the roles were switched with the Rangers beating Toronto 3-1 for their second of four championships to date.
Seibert was traded to Chicago on January 20, 1936 for Art Coulter. In 1937-38, Chicago was one of the greatest underdog stories in the history of the NHL. The Blackhawks won just 14 games and totalled just 37 points over the 48 game schedule. Yet, Chicago knocked off the Montreal Canadiens and New York Americans to earn a berth in the Stanley Cup finals against Toronto. Chicago then won their second of five championships with a 3-1 victory over the Maple Leafs.
Several years would pass before Seibert and the Blackhawks would get that close again. In 1943-44, Chicago once again entered the post season as the underdog, finishing fourth in the six team league with 49 points over 50 games. The Blackhawks reached the finals but met up with one of the greatest teams of all time, the Montreal Canadiens. The Habs swept the series in four.
1944-45 was Seibert’s last year of glory in the National Hockey League. On January 2, 1945, he was traded to the Red Wings in exchange for Don Grosso, Butch McDonald and Cully Simon. After 22 games at the start of the season with Chicago, Earl played 25 with the Red Wings.
In the playoffs, Seibert appeared in 14 more in what was one of the tightest fought playoff seasons in NHL history. The Red Wings lost in the finals to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The series went the full seven games and both teams scored just nine goals. In the opening round, Detroit once again took the full seven to eliminate the Boston Bruins with both teams scoring 22 goals each. In the other opening round series, Toronto took out Montreal in seven, outscoring the Habs 21-15.
Earl Seibert was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1963, along with 22 others.
Earl Seibert – Coaching Career
After his NHL career was over, Seibert spent two years in the AHL as a player/head coach. In 1945-46, he played for the Indianapolis Capitals and replaced John Sorrell as head coach midseason. The Capitals placed first of four in the Western Division and second overall in the AHL behind the Buffalo Bisons. Indianapolis lost in the opening round to the Bisons in what was a ridiculous playoff format, pitting the top two teams against each other in the first round.
In 1946-47, Earl moved back to where it all started back in 1929 and spent 1946-47 has player/head coach of the Springfield Indians. He hung up the blades and was just head coach of the Indians from 1947-48 to 1950-51. Springfield did not have a winning season during Earl’s time as head coach. The Indians reached the Calder Cup playoffs in four of the five seasons but never won a series.
Earl Seibert – Rookie Card
Seibert played much of his career in the dark ages of the hockey card world. However, his rookie card is considered to be the 1936 Diamond Match number 61. These were match book covers with a profile picture and a short bio all crammed into that small space.
The Diamond Match card is in sharp contrast to the Earl Seibert 1939-40 O-Pee-Chee V301-1 #76 card, considered by me to be his only ‘real’ hockey card during his playing days. The 1939-40 V301-1 hockey cards measured 5×7, about twice the size of the standard of today. Both the Diamond Match and O-Pee-Chee cards show Seibert as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks.
| Season | Team | Lge | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM |
| 1929-30 | Springfield Indians | CAHL | 40 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 84 |
| 1930-31 | Springfield Indians | CAHL | 38 | 16 | 11 | 27 | 96 |
| 1931-32 | New York Rangers | NHL | 44 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 88 |
| 1932-33 | New York Rangers | NHL | 45 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 92 |
| 1933-34 | New York Rangers | NHL | 48 | 13 | 10 | 23 | 66 |
| 1934-35 | New York Rangers | NHL | 48 | 6 | 19 | 25 | 86 |
| 1935-36 | New York Rangers | NHL | 15 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 6 |
| 1935-36 | Chicago Blackhawks | NHL | 29 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 21 |
| 1936-37 | Chicago Blackhawks | NHL | 43 | 9 | 6 | 15 | 46 |
| 1937-38 | Chicago Blackhawks | NHL | 48 | 8 | 13 | 21 | 38 |
| 1938-39 | Chicago Blackhawks | NHL | 48 | 4 | 11 | 15 | 57 |
| 1939-40 | Chicago Blackhawks | NHL | 37 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 35 |
| 1940-41 | Chicago Blackhawks | NHL | 44 | 3 | 17 | 20 | 52 |
| 1941-42 | Chicago Blackhawks | NHL | 45 | 7 | 14 | 21 | 52 |
| 1942-43 | Chicago Blackhawks | NHL | 44 | 5 | 27 | 32 | 48 |
| 1943-44 | Chicago Blackhawks | NHL | 50 | 8 | 25 | 33 | 40 |
| 1944-45 | Chicago Blackhawks | NHL | 22 | 7 | 8 | 15 | 13 |
| 1944-45 | Detroit Red Wings | NHL | 25 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 10 |
| 1945-46 | Indianapolis Capitals | AHL | 24 | 2 | 9 | 11 | 19 |
| 1945-46 | Detroit Red Wings | NHL | 18 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 18 |
| 1946-47 | Springfield Indians | AHL | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| NHL Totals | 653 | 89 | 187 | 276 | 768 |